way into a poor
soul, may become mighty enough to cast it into hell."--_Draeseke vom
Reich Gottes_, ii. 238.

As there is no sin so great that the blood of Christ cannot blot it out,
so there is no sin so small that it cannot destroy a soul. A little sin
is like a little fire: stand in awe of the spark, and rest not till it
is quenched. As Christ our Lord is tenderly careful of spiritual life
when it is feeble, and cherishes it into strength, we should sternly
stamp out evil while it is yet young in our own hearts, lest it spread
like a fire. He will not quench the smoking flax of beginning grace, and
we should quench with all our might the smoking flax of sin. He
commanded the Church in Sardis to "be watchful, and strengthen the
things which remain, that are ready to die" (Rev. iii. 2). The
counterpart and complement of that command is binding, too, upon his
disciples: Be watchful, and weaken--if possible, kill outright--the
germs of evil that are springing from unseen seeds within your own heart
and around you in the world. "The God of peace will bruise Satan under
your feet shortly:" He will bruise Satan, but Satan must be bruised
under your feet.

IV.

THE LEAVEN.

"Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto
leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till
the whole was leavened."--MATT. xiii. 33.

In the mustard-seed we saw the kingdom growing great by its inherent
vitality; in the leaven we see it growing great by a contagious
influence. There, the increase was attained by development from within;
here, by acquisitions from without. It is not that there are two
distinct ways in which the Gospel may gain complete possession of a man,
or Christianity gain complete possession of the world; but that the one
way in which the work advances is characterized by both these features,
and consequently two pictures are required to exhibit both sides of the
same thing.

The thought which is peculiar to this parable, the specific lesson which
it teaches, is, the power of the Gospel, acting like contagion, to
penetrate, assimilate, and absorb the world in which it lies. The
kingdom grows great by permeating in secret through the masses, changing
them gradually into its own nature, and appropriating them to itself.

The material frame-work which contains the spiritual lesson here is, in
its main features, easily understood. Immediately below the surface,